Living in the Long Tail
Borepatch has another excellent post, this time examining how the Long Tail effect of the Internet distribution of information impacts the political class.
This is a hat trick for BP this week. Highly recommended reading.
The Progressive Promise
Borepatch hits another one out of the park, this time analyzing the progressive value proposition and the arrogance of the left.
The arrogance of the Obama administration has been breathtaking to behold. And it has had terrible consequences for the Democrats. I find the plan to try to ram through healthcare, again, shocking. Do it again, but harder?
Starbucks Appreciation Day
Joe Huffman has nominated Sunday, February 21st as Starbucks appreciation day.
If you don’t know why we need to appreciate Starbucks, more info is here. Thumbnail sketch: The Bradies wrote a letter to Starbucks asking them to prohibit open carry in their stores. Starbucks told them to pound sand.
The Shorty and I will be enjoying lattes and what she calls “coffee-store cake” (marble poundcake) that day.
Another newbie joins the ranks
Robb comments on the Seattle attack.
At least one good thing came out of it. I have a buddy who I have been helping getting started in shooting. He just got his CCW, and we are going to Gunsite in March. This morning he sent me an email:
btw: As Linda was watching the news this morning of a people getting attacked on the Metro transit station and security doing nothing and police coming late, she surprised me saying she is now seeing the value of having responsible, trained people armed increasing the safety of everyone around them. wow. next steps, getting Linda to get her CCW.
Looks like the right lesson is being learned!
Borepatch has an interesting analysis of the recent announcement by the Obama administration that Americans can be targeted for assassination if the administration believes that they are about to commit terrorist acts.
I think he is right on the money…by punishing the right for outrageous statements and rewarding the left, the press shifts the efficient frontier of stupid comments to the left. Finally, a cogent explanation for Robert Gibbs!
And I have to agree with this:
Like I said, I don’t believe that the Fed.Gov is fixin’ to put my name on a bullet. I do think that the Obama administration is filled with an astonishing number of hacks that are itching to flex the muscles of the Organs of the State. And that they’re too stupid (yes, that’s the right word) to know just what a whirlwind that they’re sowing.
Lets not forget that the folks around Obama have a history of this kind of thing. Can anyone say Bill Ayers?
10 Rules for dealing with the police
Cato.org is hosting a premier this Friday for “10 Rules for Dealing With the Police”.
If a free society depends upon an informed citizenry exercising oversight of its government, then more people need to know how to handle themselves in a police encounter. Is cooperation always the best course of action? Or are there times to assert the constitutional right to refuse consent to a search of one’s home or belongings? A new documentary film answers those questions and more in an informative and entertaining series of skits narrated by Baltimore trial attorney Billy Murphy (from HBO’s The Wire). Learn how the safeguards of the Bill of Rights operate outside of the courthouse and on the street. Learn how to make smart decisions and respond effectively to police misconduct.
The trailer:
Good info to know.
And another thing
Another thought about the US budget. People have referred to the “surplus” that US enjoyed under the Clinton administration. The US never had a surplus under Clinton. We may have had (and this is arguable) a positive cash flow under the Clinton administration. But our balance sheet was always in the red.
What I learned in business school
This morning’s headline on Drudge Report: “Obama finds $20 Billion in cuts!”
Sounds good…lets run the math:
FY 2010 budget: $3.55 trilllion
FY 2010 deficit: $1.17 trillion.
Savings as a percentage of the budget = 20/3550 = .56%
Savings as a percentage of the deficit = 20/1170 = 1.7%
Um…keep looking, Barry!
Quote of the day
QOTD is from Breda, on the use of the term “racist”:
This sort of thing has happened frequently enough that the epithet has lost all its sting. I see it now for what it is, a knee-jerk reaction to some perceived slight combined with a lack of better vocabulary.
I’ve often said that when someone calls you a racist, the appropriate response is to laugh. Anything else just perpetuates the behavior. And I think the term has sort of become the equivalent of “the N word” or calling someone a fascist or “commie”: semantically null and without meaning.
A few years ago, my wife was teaching in the South Bronx. She had a parent complain to the principal that “Mrs. Newbie” was not being fair to her son, and perhaps it was racially motivated. She went to sit down with the principal and the parent. She ran into the mother of one of her former students, who said “Hello, Miss. Maidenname” (We had gotten married in the meantime and she had changed her name.) They had a bit of a chat, and then the both of them walk into the principals office. Mother turns to her son, slaps him upside the head and says “Boy, you are in a lot of trouble. You didn’t tell me it was Miss Maidenname!” Seems the mom didn’t realize that my wife was the one she was accusing of racism. Needless to say, it went nowhere.
So the moral of the story…develop more creative insults. And laugh if you are accused of racism.
Dogs and cats, living together…
From our WTF? department…
I got a letter from a friend of mine this weekend. She is a Irish Catholic from Massachusetts, and when we were in college, we would often spar Democrat versus Republican. She graduated from our school, and for the past 10 years has been a cloistered nun. The high points of the letter:
- She has realized that the Kennedy’s are morally bankrupt.
- She’s glad that Scott Brown has won, after all it is the peoples seat.
- She wanted to tell me that she was wrong all those years ago.
- This is proof that miracles happen.
When you have lost Irish-Catholic Massachusetts cloistered nuns…bad juju.
Do your part!
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